EcoSan Toilets Transform Human Waste into Compost in Haiti | Food Tank
▻http://foodtank.org/news/2013/12/ecosan-toilets-transform-human-waste-into-compost-in-haiti
According to SOIL, Haitians commonly use plastic bags to dispose of their waste into rivers and the ocean. Combined with a lack of adequate public infrastructure, this method of waste disposal contributes to the contamination of communal groundwater with waterborne diseases, like cholera.
Decades of destructive land use policies in Haiti—including reliance on charcoal (converted from timber) as its primary energy source— have left soils bare and devoid of nutrients. Only about two percent of Haiti’s original forests remains today.
The EcoSan toilet is providing a way for Haitians to transform their waste into a renewable supply of compost that can be sold to nurseries, garden stores, and NGOs to promote local agriculture and reforestation. Most SOIL toilets are designed with special toilet seats and urine diversion technology that separate liquid from solid waste. In addition to preventing odor, the technology reduces the weight of the waste buckets that will be transported to composting sites, where they undergo a six-month treatment to eliminate pathogens.